Last week, I gave you my favorite picks for 2012. This week I look ahead to the coming year and share with you the games I’m most excited about. There is one small caveat. As far as I know, none of these games has a firm release date yet. With that in mind, let’s take a look. 

3. Company of Heroes 2

I’ve played a lot of Company of Heroes and its subsequent expansions. There are a couple of reasons I love the original.

The first being that unit facing matters. When you move a unit you can hold the click on the map while dragging a direction. This causes the unit to orient to the direction you have chosen. The direction a unit is facing truly matters. If an anti-tank gun is facing away from an enemy tank, it will take it a second or two to adjust itself to the threat; a couple of seconds that could be the difference between a tank punching through your lines. 

Secondly, the AI is tricky. When you think you’ve got the map buttoned up is when the AI shows you that you left a space open for it’s troops to slide through and harass your back lines. Unless there is only one way to get at you, the computer will attack you at different points trying to find a way through to your base. 

With CoH 2 I’m looking forward to more of what made the original great. However, Relic Entertainment has announced that it will be adding a new technology called TrueSight and an upgrade to its Essence Engine to improve upon the original. 

Release date: Early 2013

2. Firefall 

This is an upcoming MMOFPS with an RPG element. I’ve been a part of the beta for this game for a while now,
and it shows a lot of promise. 

What I really love about this game is the cooperative nature of the PVE game. Much like Guild Wars 2 there are events that occur that everyone can help with regardless of whether they are in a party together or not. Most, if not all, of the events are fighting an inter-dimensional enemy called The Chosen who are bent on taking over Earth. Depending on the outcome of a given event a base or city could be lost in an area. Leaving the players without a place to buy or sell resources and change their battle frames or weaponry. 

The game play is very fluid so far and the environments are gorgeous. And the best part is running with your friends and bouncing along the terrain with your jump jets! 

Release date: None, but likely 2013.

1. Starbound 

Starbound is a 2D side scrolling/platform RPG sandbox game. (Wow, that was a long descriptor! But you really can’t omit any of the information in the description.) It is, in my humble opinion, the spiritual successor to Terraria, which is one of my favorite games of all time. 

Starbound takes everything that is great about Terraria and adds more! Instead of one world to explore and build in, there is a galaxy or universe of worlds! Instead of only a human character there are several races your character can be. Instead of a few weapons there will be tons of procedurally generated weapons. Speaking of procedurally, that is pretty much how the whole game will run. Planets, dungeons, and weapons will all be procedurally generated. If all of this isn’t enough for you, then imagine the fun of owning your own planet and terraforming it the way you like! 

One thing that will be different with Starbound is that there has been mention of a story line with missions. Oh, man. I. Cannot. Wait. 

Release Date: “When it’s done” – with a target of first quarter, 2013.

Honorable mention: Dead state 

Dead State is an RPG set in a Zombie apocalypse. The graphics look reminiscent of XCOM to me and it’s a game in zombie environment. How can you go wrong? I have some high hopes for this one. The reason it gets Honorable Mention is because the release is still TBA.

Well, that’s what I’m looking forward to this year. How about you? What games are you anxiously awaiting in 2013? Feel free to let us know in the comments or through twitter @marsuller and @game_on_girl. 

Next week, I will be talking more about Terraria and what makes it one of my favorite games of all time.